Power Consumption Optimization of GPU Server With Offline Reinforcement Learning

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to increased reliance on power-intensive Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which are essential for training and deploying large-scale models. However, the escalating energy demands of AI workloads pose sustainability challenges, necessitating efficient power management strategies to reduce carbon footprints. Optimizing GPU server power consumption is complex due to the interdependence of various components. Conventional methods often involve trade-offs: increasing fan speed enhances cooling but raises overall power usage, whereas lowering GPU clock frequencies conserves energy at the cost of longer computation times. To address these challenges, we propose a data-driven optimization framework based on offline reinforcement learning (RL). Our approach collects operational data from a custom-designed workload that simulates varying server loads, capturing key metrics such as power consumption, temperature, and core frequency. The reward function balances power efficiency with performance. The reinforcement learning agent learns from pre-collected server logs, enabling intelligent real-time GPU clock control decisions without costly live experiments. Additionally, periodic fan speed adjustments and pre-training of the Q-network further enhance overall efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate that our method reduces power consumption by 3.62% while improving computation time by 1.51% for synthetic workloads. For LLaMA-2 fine-tuning, power consumption decreases by 6.40% with only a minor 1.27% increase in computation time, demonstrating its practical effectiveness. Our framework was validated on the latest NVIDIA L40S GPU, demonstrating its compatibility with cutting-edge hardware.